he found himself surrounded by a local Vietnamese militia pointing their guns at him, thinking he was a downed American pilot. Despite showing them his identity papers, it took a local village elder to defuse the situation. Given that Pham Ngoc Lan was born and raised originally in the South, his accent made him sound like he was from South Vietnam which complicated matters. Before long a helicopter from his base arrived to retrieve him and the MiG was also recovered and put back into service, a testament to the toughness of the design. Returning his base, he found out that the other men of his flight had managed to land safely." Since that day in 1965, the Vietnamese government made the third of April a public holiday called "Air Force Day". 9 April Four McDonnell Douglas F-4B Phantom IIs of VF-96, CVW-9, launch on a BARCAP mission from USS Ranger, but the leader of the second element, Lt. Cdr. William Greer, in F-4B-16-MC, BuNo 151425, loses an engine on launch and the fighter bellyflops into the sea, both crew ejecting. This was VF-96's first loss of the war. 27 April Ryan XV-5A Vertifan, 62-4505, noses over from 800 feet (244 m) and crashes at Edwards Air Force Base, California, during a demonstration in front of several hundred reporters, military personnel, and civilians. Ryan test pilot Willis Louis "Lou" Everett, flying at 180 knots, prepares to transition from conventional flight to fan mode but the aircraft unexpectedly pitches down. Everett attempts low-altitude ejection but seat fails, his chute snags on the high tail, and he is killed. 4 May USAF Convair F-106B Delta Dart, 57-2528, suffers a mid-air collision with F-106A, 57-4721, both assigned to the 539th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, McGuire AFB, New Jersey, the second fighter being lost and 2528 recovering to NAFEC Atlantic City, New Jersey. It will later crash on 16 October 1972 while assigned to the 4756th Air Defense Wing, Tyndall AFB, Florida. 16 May While waiting to take off on a mission, a B-57B Canberra jet bomber explodes on the ground at Bien Hoa Air Base, Vietnam. This sets off a chain of secondary explosions that destroy 21 other airplanes at the base, kill 27 U.S. Air Force personnel, and injure 99 people. Among the dead was 34-year-old USAF Major Robert G. Bell, who in 1959 had been one of the 32 finalists for NASA Astronaut